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Sunday, June 02, 2013

First, allow me to apologize for the long absence I have taken from writing anything myself. Life called.
I have been working for the past year and a half at a dry cleaner's, which left me little time or energy for writing.

Now, I must elbow my way past my husband, who has made himself quite at home on my computer. I also notice that the format for blogger has changed somewhat, so we will see how this all turns out.

Today is the Solemnity of Corpus Christi...The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Today we celebrate the gift that God has made to us in the Eucharist...the Body and Blood of Christ.

The gospel reading was the story of the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. This story appears in all four of the gospels, which might just be a clue to its importance. That the story of this miracle of Jesus' is read for Corpus Christi points to its being a "type" of the Eucharist. This means that the story prefigures the actual gift of the Eucharist to us. It's a sign.

For my last year of high-school, I had moved back to an area with low population of Catholics relative to its population of evangelical Protestants. Having spent the previous three years in a Catholic school, this proved a shock to the system. One weekend I spent at a Protestant youth retreat. I remember someone questioning me about Catholic belief that Christ is fully present, Body and Blood, in the Eucharistic host. She said "You must think He has an awfully big body!". With no thought of my own, I blurted out "Loaves and fishes." Both of the girls I was talking with became pensive. I thought to myself "What a dumb thing for me to say!" Years later, I understood that what I had said was not dumb at all. By multiplying the loaves and fishes for the gathered crowd, Jesus foreshadowed what He would do for us with His own Body and Blood.

The reflection on the gospel we heard today brought out another thought regarding miracles in general. We were reminded that a lot of work, human work, was associated with the miracle performed by Jesus. The apostles found the boy with the loaves and fish. Then the throng of more than 5000 people was divided into groups of 50. Jesus performed the miracle. We are not told just how many actually noticed what was happening. The food was distributed. After the people ate, the leftovers were collected.

How many noticed the miracle? With all the work we do in our lives, do we notice the miracles which God still performs for us?

To draw the reflection back to today's solemnity, I think we can point directly to the Most Holy Eucharist. Do we realize what a miracle it is? That little papery looking host is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus.